While You Were Sleeping
by The Lonegun Chicky
Summary: What happens when Snape finds out Hermione is engaged to his brother? Read and find out. Based on the movie. Completely redone!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Harry Potter or the storyline to While You Were Sleeping, except the original characters that I created.

While You Were Sleeping

Hermione Granger sat in the ticket booth at the Queensway Underground station in muggle London, reflecting on her life. Her days as a child running ramped though the corridors of Hogwarts were long gone. Since she, Harry, Ron, and Professor Snape had fought the last battle against Voldemort during their 7th year, nothing had been the same. Voldemort had killed her parents and her best friends. Her anger and hatred for the dark lord had become so powerful, that she never realized that she, herself, had cast the killing curse that freed the wizarding world from the darkness.

Severus Snape had stood in shock as he watched Voldemort's body fall heavily to the ground. He never would have imagined that the Gryffindor Know-It-All would cast one of the unforgivables. He was soon shaken out of his thoughts when he saw that she was about to fall. He caught her just in time, swept her up in his arms, and quickly apparated them to Hogsmeade. From there, he took her to Hogwarts and explained to Dumbledore what had happened.

When she woke up in the hospital wing a few days later, everything came crashing down on her. She had to be forced to eat and given dreamless sleep potion to keep the nightmares at bay. Dumbledore had given her permission to skip the rest of her classes since she had already taken her NEWTs weeks earlier and passed with extremely high marks. She somehow managed to get though her first semester at Oxford, but slipped into a deep depression. She decided to leave the wizarding world and live in the muggle one, as her parents had always hoped she would do. With no muggle education other than almost finishing primary school, she only just managed to land a job at the Underground. And she'd been doing that for the past three years.

It was one day a few months ago that she had started seeing him. A tall, handsome man with short, wavy black hair, deep brown eyes, and a smile that could make any woman melt in an instant. He had started coming to her booth between 7:00 and 7:15 in the morning every couple of days. Hermione had never been one to really date, or believe in love at first sight, but there was just something about him that made her love him. They had never really spoken, but he always smiled at her as he walked by her booth.

"Hey, Hermione, you ok?" her boss, Kyle asks.

"Oh, what? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she lies.

"You sure? You were a million miles away."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"All right. Umm…Hermione, would you mind working tomorrow too?" he asks hopefully.

"Kyle, I'm not working Christmas. I worked Thanksgiving and last Christmas," she whines.

"I promised my wife I'd be home this Christmas. My little girl is just starting to walk." Hermione sighs.

"Fine. I'll work tomorrow. You go see your family."

"You're the best, Hermione," he smiles, then hurries off to his office.

She sighs heavily and bites back tears as she watches happy couples and families walk by, holding hands or chatting excitedly about their plans for the holiday.

Her depressed mood continues even as she trudges to her apartment that's not too far away. Her cat, Crookshanks, greets her with a meow and rubs against her legs.

"Hey Crookshanks. How are you?" He meows again at her and she manages a small smile. "I'll get you some food." He meows again and trots behind her into the kitchen. After getting Crookshanks his food, she pours herself a glass of milk, then heads off to bed. Little did she know that the next day would change her life.

Hermione yawns as she sits bored to death in her booth, barely noticing it was a little after 7:00.

"Hey, Happy Christmas," the man of her dreams says with a deep, silky voice as he walks past her.

She looks up and he smiles at her before he heads off to his train. She becomes so tongue-tied, and just watches him walk away. Seconds later, two teenagers come up to the man and start taunting him. The teenagers take turns pushing him and he stumbles backward, hitting his head against one of the ticket scanners then falls hard to the ground. The two kids run off as Hermione rushes out to help him.

"Sir? Sir, are you ok? Can you hear me?"

His eyes flutter open for just a second, then fall shut again. She yells for one of the people in the station to call for help then asks another worker to cover for her as she hails a cab to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

"Miss, are you family?" the doctor asks.

"No, but-" he cuts her off.

"Then you can't see him."

Hermione stands there behind the glass doors watching the doctor assess the man's injuries.

"I was going to marry him," she says with a sigh.

A nurse overhears her and takes her to see him when he is admitted to a room. Hermione takes a seat next to his bed, and gently takes his hand.

"Aleksandr," she says, having heard the doctor address him. "Everything is going to be fine. I know it is." Hermione watches him for awhile before what appears to be his family walk into the room.

"How could he just all of a sudden end up in the hospital? Especially on Christmas day!" the older woman says with long black hair that has streaks of silver in it.

"I don't know, Gillian, but it's just like him to do something like this," her husband says.

"Father, don't be so hard on him," a girl says as she puts a hand on her brothers. Hermione slinks back away from the family.

"Why not, Andrea?" he replies back to his daughter.

"How did this happen?" the mother asks.

"He umm…was pushed by a couple of teenagers and hit his head on a ticket scanner at the Queensway station," Hermione offers. The family now notices her.

"Who are you?" the father asks.

"My name is Hermione."

"She's his fiancée," the nurse adds with a smile as she exits the room. Hermione's eyes go wide.

"His fiancée?" the family says together.

Aleksandr's mother walks over to Hermione and hugs her.

"I'm sorry, we didn't know. We haven't seen Aleksandr in a long time."

"But I-" Hermione starts.

The doctor comes in just then to explain that Aleksandr is in a coma. Seeing this as a chance to escape, Hermione leaves and heads back to her lonely apartment. She lays in bed with Crookshanks by her side and tosses and turns. Finally she can't take it any longer and goes to see Aleksandr. She explains to him that his family thinks they are engaged, even though she doesn't think he can hear her. She ends up falling asleep with her head lying on his bed.

"Hermione?" Aleksandr's mother, Gillian asks. "Did you sleep here all night?"

"Yeah. I guess I must have fallen asleep, but I should be leaving. I have to go to work now."

"Willem, honey, go on," Gillian pushes.

"Hermione?" he asks and she turns around. "Since we didn't get a chance to celebrate the holiday, would you like to join us tonight?"

"Yeah, you haven't met Severus yet," Andrea says.

"That's right, you haven't met Severus," Gillian repeats.

Hermione opens her mouth in shock. Surely this couldn't be the same Severus that she knew. But then again, she had no clue as to what the family's last name was.

"Please?" Andrea pleads.

"Ummm…," Hermione stutters.

Willem hands her a card with their name and address on it.

"Just stop on by if you can."

She shoves the card into her pocket and nods her head before hurrying off to work. Towards the end of her shift, she takes out the card that Willem gave her. Her heart stops beating when she sees what their last name is.

"Sn…Snape? I'm pretending to be engaged to a Snape?" she says horrified and almost faints from shock. Still shell-shocked from her discovery, she heads home. While she feeds Crookshanks, she decides that she should go.

"After all they did seem to be nice people, even if their other son is a complete and udder git," she tells Crookshanks as she grabs her coat.


	2. Chapter 2

She hurries over to the Queensway station to catch a train to Oxford Circus. From there she walks to Hanover street to the Snape's nice, quaint looking home.

"Not something I'd imagine the great wizarding family living in," she whispers to herself.

She nervously heads to the front door. Gillian opens it before she can even knock.

"Hermione, I'm glad you could make it," the woman says cheerfully.

She gives her a hug and ushers her into the house. Hermione stands stunned as she looks around. Inside, the place looks just as fabulous as she always thought it would. The sitting room off to the left was very large and decorated in beautiful green, red, silver and gold silks and satins. A fire roared in the old brick fireplace with snakes making up the mantel. The stairs leading up to the second floor were made of the most beautiful and expensive wood one could get. And the dinning room to the right reminded her of a smaller version of the Great Hall at Hogwarts.

"Wow," is all she can muster. Gillian smiles.

"Hey everyone, Hermione's here!" the older woman announces. Andrea comes running down the stairs and gives her a huge hug. Willem enters the foyer from a door that connects off from the sitting room. He too, gives her a hug.

"Welcome to our home," he greets.

"Thank you," she replies.

Hermione is just about to say something else, but Gillian and Andrea sweep her away into the sitting room to see the biggest Christmas tree that she has ever seen. Presents cover most of the floor. Andrea begins to sift though them and hands them out to everyone. Soon, the room is filled with laughter as Willem and Gillian tell tales of when Aleksandr and Severus were little.

"We always thought it was interesting that even though they were twins, they had two completely different personalities. Severus has always had a very dry and sarcastic humor, but Aleksandr has been the one who always is so jovial and happy. Whenever anyone came to our house, Aleksandr was the first to greet them with a smile on his face," Willem explains.

"Oh, but when they started at Hogwarts, that was the worst," Gillian states.

"Why?" Hermione asks curiously.

"Well, Hogwarts is…a private school," Willem explains. "And the students are divided into four different houses. Severus was placed in Slytherin, and Aleksandr was placed in their rival house, Gryffindor." Hermione smiles and thinks to herself that this story could get very interesting very quickly.

"So what happened?"

"Those two would fight so bad that the headmaster was very close to kicking them both out. And it didn't help that Aleksandr was friends with James Potter, who was a sworn enemy of Severus'."

"And it only got worse as they got older," Andrea adds. "I remember when I was in my first year. Aleksandr would tease Severus for being, as he called it, a book worm. Then Severus would shoot back some insult that Aleksandr could never figure out. It was quite humorous sometimes." Hermione smiles.

"So what happened after they finished school?" she asks. Willem looks at Gillian.

"Well, both had gone off to Cambridge. Aleksandr took the job he has now after he graduated, and Severus…well, he got into some trouble and the only one who could straighten him out was his old headmaster. He gave Severus a teaching position, and he's been doing that ever since," he tells her.

"I take it that they still aren't close?" Hermione risks asking.

"No, they're not. They haven't seen each other in a long time," Gillian comments sadly.

"So what about you and your family?" Andrea asks.

Hermione inwardly cringes.

"I too, went to a private school. Right before I started at Oxford, both my parents and my two best friends were killed. I somehow managed to get though the first semester, but then I just couldn't do it anymore. Not because it was too hard, but because I fell into a deep depression."

"Is that how you came to meet Aleksandr?" Andrea asks.

"Yeah, it is," Hermione says smiling.

After telling a few more stories about their pasts, they all sit down to dinner, complete with all the trimmings. Hermione was happier now than she had been in a long time. Who would have ever thought that the Snapes could be so much fun?

"Dinner was great, Gillian, but I really must be going."

"No, no. We would love it if you would stay tonight. Please."

Hermione thinks it over.

"All right. I'll stay."

"Oh good. Andrea would you make up Hermione's bed?"

"Yes, mother." Andrea hurries up the stairs to get the guest bedroom ready.

After a drink or two and another round of stories about Aleksandr and Severus, Hermione finally heads to the guest bedroom and falls asleep.

Severus Snape enters his parents home rather noisily. He looks at the mess of wrapping paper and bows on the floor of the sitting room, and scowls in disgust. With a few soft spoken words, the room is clean. He hangs up his cloak, and stomps up the stairs.

"Sevie, is that you?" Andrea asks.

"How did you guess?" he asks rather annoyed with his little sister. "And don't call me Sevie. My name is Severus," he growls loudly.

"Shhh…You'll wake up Hermione," Andrea says pointing to the open guest bedroom door. He raises an eyebrow at his sister and peeks in the room at Hermione's sleeping form.

"Who's Hermione?"

"She's Aleksandr's fiancée."

"Aleksandr's engaged?" Snape asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, isn't it great? I know you'll like her. Mother and father do." He glares at his sister. 'This can't possibly be the same Hermione that's the Gryffindor Know-It-All, could it?' he thinks to himself.

"Andrea, what is this Hermione's last name?"

"I think she said it was Granger. Why?"

"Are you sure it's Granger?" he practically screams at her.

"I'm pretty sure, Severus," she replies looking at him oddly.

"Dismissed," he scowls.

"Let's get one thing straight, Sevie. I'm your sister, not one of your students."

He growls again.

"I'm not going to apologize, but I will try not to do it again."

Knowing that is the best she's going to get from him, she gives him a hug then goes back to bed leaving him alone in the doorway of the guest bedroom.

"My twin brother is going to marry the Know-It-All? This is going to be like Voldemort's reign all over again," he sighs as he slowly walks to his childhood bedroom.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Hermione tries not to make a sound as she slowly makes her way down the stairs and into the sitting room to retrieve her gifts before she leaves to go home. Severus, having always been a light sleeper hears someone rustling about downstairs and decides to get up. He tosses on his robes and starts down the stairs. He sees that it's Hermione making all the noise and thinks how much fun it would be to scare her as she's leaving. He grins slyly to himself and sits at the top of the stairs that face the front door.

"Miss Granger," he says in his most stern voice as Hermione starts to open the door. She jumps as she screams, then turns around.

"Professor Snape. You scared me," she says, her voice still not quite back to normal.

"I hear you're marrying my brother."

"Umm…that's right."

"Tell me, do my parents know that you are my former student and were the one who defeated the Dark Lord?" Hermione looks at the ground. "I didn't think so."

"Please, Professor, I'm not ready to tell anyone about what happened that day. The only people who know about what really happened are you and Dumbledore."

"And why shouldn't I tell them? After all, you are going to be their daughter-in-law. What will they think of you if they know you lied to them about who you truly are?"

"Professor, I realize I have no reason to ask this of you, but please, don't tell them. I will explain everything to them when I'm ready."

"Dismissed, Miss Granger," he scowls.

Hermione swallows heavily and hurries out the door. She goes back to her apartment and feeds her cat. As she puts back the cat food, she remembers the box of Aleksandr's things that the doctor gave her. She picks it up and goes to sit on her bed to look though it. The last thing she looks at it a crumbled brown paper sack. She opens it and a can of cat food falls out. She grabs his keys, the can of food, and immediately heads over to Aleksandr's apartment.

His apartment building isn't anything fancy, but it looks like a nice place. She hurries up to his apartment and starts searching for the cat. Little does she know that Severus just apparated into the apartment. He hears her calling for the cat and goes to see if he can scare her like he did that morning. Hermione walks though the kitchen, opens the door, and hits him square in the face. She shrieks, then opens the door slowly.

"Professor, I'm so sorry."

"You stupid girl. You should know that you just don't go barreling through doors, but I suppose that is one thing that you will never learn, no matter how old you get," he yells angrily at her.

Hermione rolls her eyes at him, deciding that she's lived far too many years being afraid of him.

"Why are you here? You hardly ever talk to your brother, let alone drop by to see him."

"I didn't come here because I wanted to. My parents asked me if I'd look in on his…" Severus looks around and snarls at his brother's extremely bad taste in décor. "place of living," he finishes, glaring at her.

"Look, I hate you and you hate me, but we're going to have to learn to be civil to one another because I'm marrying your brother. We'll have to see each other sometime no matter how much we'll detest it."

"As much as it pains me to say it, you do have a point."

She looks at him completely shocked. He actually admitted that she was right about something.

"But just because you are marrying into my family does not make you special in anyway. You still will always be the annoying Gryffindor Know-It-All."

It's her turn to growl.

"Does it make you feel better when you put other people down? Is that why you are so mean to everyone? Do you feel that insecure about yourself that you have to pick on people that are younger than you or ones you think aren't as smart as you?" she yells at him.

"Miss Granger! You're treading on thin ice."

"I don't care. It's about time someone stood up to you. You tell me that I have a lot of growing up to do, well take a look at yourself."

With that, she storms out of the apartment to go see Aleksandr. Severus sighs heavily.

While at the hospital, Hermione runs into Willem, who asks her to dinner. She accepts and smiles at the thought of getting another chance to piss Severus off.

"So, Hermione, what was it about Aleksandr that made you first notice him?" Gillian asks.

"It was…his smile," she says remembering the first time she saw him.

"Where did you guys meet?" Andrea asks, entering into the conversation.

"It was at the Queensway station. He came though my booth one day and smiled at me. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about him."

Both Andrea and Gillian smile. Severus rolls his eyes. Willem sees it and glares at him. He reluctantly looks back down at his plate.

"You don't think you could help me find a nice girl for Severus, do you Hermione?" Gillian asks. Hermione looks over at the man in question, who looks at his mother, horrified at the thought.

"I don't know. I might know a few girls," she says flashing Severus a smile.

He grips his fork a little tighter.

"I think that's just what my son needs. Maybe a woman in his life would teach him not to be so uptight all the time," Willem states.

"Father, I am doing just fine on my own," Severus says though almost clenched teeth.

From that point on, dinner is kept to talking about how everyone's day went.

"Gillian, once again, that was a lovely dinner."

"Thank you, my dear."

Hermione smiles and starts to get on her coat. Willem pushes Severus to open the door for her. Not happy about it, he jerks open the heavy wooden door.

"Goodbye," he says rudely.

"Severus, be nice," his mother warns.

"Thanks again," Hermione states as she moves closer to the door.

"Oh look, you guys are under the mistletoe," Andrea points out. The two look up and see it hanging right over their heads.

"Go on, kiss her," Willem says.

"It's tradition," Gillian encourages.

"And it has to be on the lips," Andrea adds.

Hermione and Severus wince, but decide that his family isn't going to let it go. They both move forward and kiss lightly.

"Good night," Hermione says before she leaves.

Severus hangs back and watches her walk away. He shakes his head, wondering why he hasn't had the urge to run and throw up yet. He goes to join his family in the sitting room after she disappears around the corner.


	4. Chapter 4

The next night Severus sends her an owl. She brakes the green and silver wax seal and begins to read.

"Miss Granger,

Since my parents think you are a muggle, they didn't want to send you an owl, so they gave me the task of finding you. Unfortunate for me, I know the truth. Meet me at my brother's apartment in one hour. My parent have something for you.

Signed,

Professor Severus Snape"

Hermione tosses the letter onto her kitchen table and goes to get ready. She pulls on her heavy winter coat and braces herself for the blast of cold air as she steps outside. She arrives at Aleksandr's apartment a few minutes late.

"Miss Granger, I stated clearly in the letter you were to meet me here in one hour. I expected you to be on time."

"Learn to live with it," she spats at him, and goes to feed the cat.

"Miss Granger," he warns and she stops what she's doing.

"We both agreed the other night to make an effort to stop arguing. I think we should follow though with it." When he doesn't say anything, she continues. "Please, call me Hermione," she forces out.

"Very well…Hermione. You can call me Severus," he chokes.

"So…Severus, you said that your parents had something for me and Aleksandr?" she asks as she finishes feeding the cat.

"Yes."

He takes the present out of his pocket, sets it on the floor, says a few words, and it becomes full size. It's a very beautiful love seat decorated in the same colors as the Snape family's sitting room.

"It's beautiful…" she says with a smile.

She sits on it, testing it out. He stands there looking around he room with his arms crossed over his chest. Hermione watches him.

"Yes, Miss…Hermione?" he says turning around and seeing her watching him.

"Your mother said Aleksandr was in Gryffindor,"

He raises an eyebrow.

"He never told you?" Severus asks, finding it rather odd that she found out from his mother.

"Well, umm…we never really talked about being at Hogwarts," she lies.

"It's just like my brother not to."

She looks at him confused.

"I suppose he didn't tell you why he doesn't want anything to do with the wizarding world anymore either," he says, not really knowing why he's about to tell her about his past.

"No, he hasn't."

"Yes, he was in Gryffindor, and it is because of me that he lives in the muggle world, and has a muggle job," he states and decides to sit on the love seat with her, since it's a long story.

"How is it because of you?"

"When we graduated from Cambridge, I became rebellious since both my parents wanted me to go into the Ministry. I didn't want to do that, so I let Lucius Malfoy recruit me as a Death Eater. The day that Aleksandr found out that I was a Death Eater, he lost all faith in the wizarding world. Even though we have never really gotten along, he thought that if anyone could resist the Dark Lord, it would be me. He left home and never told anyone where he was going. He stopped using magic and somehow managed to get a job as a lawyer. We only found out where he lived because my parents had asked Dumbledore, who pulled a few strings. Since I had become a spy, I had only talked to him a few times during the years at Christmas, but most of the time, I'd stay at Hogwarts for the holidays."

"Is it because of what happened between you and Aleksandr the reason why you were always mean to everyone in class? Especially to Gryffindor?" she asks gingerly.

"Part of it, yes. I guess I have never really forgiven myself for what I did not only to my brother, but to my family, as well as myself."

"You both made a choice. I think you both need to move past it. Patch things up," she says as she puts a tentative hand on his.

"Easier said than done," he says looking down.

She gently squeezes his hand. He looks back at her, then slowly starts to lean forward. She does the same. Realization sets in and he quickly stands up.

"I have to be going. My family is waiting for me."

She nods her head and he apparates back to his parents' home. She sits on the love seat for awhile longer thinking about the mysterious man who is Severus Snape.

"Maybe he isn't that bad after all. Just misunderstood," she says to herself. She smiles and gets up to go back to her apartment.


	5. Chapter 5

"I'd like a weekend pass please," Hermione hears the next morning. She smiles when she looks up and sees Andrea and her friend.

"Hey," Hermione says.

"Hey, Hermione."

"So where are you guys headed?"

"Well, Leah is visiting from Manchester, so I thought I'd take her to Buckingham Palace."

"Sounds fun. Remember that the Green Park station is down for repairs."

"Hey, Hermione, who's this?" Eden, Hermione's friend and co-worker asks.

"I'm Andrea and this is Leah…Hermione is going to marry my brother, Aleksandr," Andrea explains.

"What, you're getting married? Why didn't you tell me?" Eden asks excitedly.

"Well, we…haven't really announced it yet."

"Hermione, we have to go now, but I'll see you later, ok?" Andrea states.

"Ok. See you later." As the girls leave, Eden asks if she's pregnant.

"Yes, I'm pregnant," Hermione says sarcastically. Leah over hears and goes to tell Andrea.

"You aren't funny," Eden says rolling her eyes.

When Andrea gets home that night she announces to her family that Hermione's pregnant. They all look over at Severus.

"Yes?" he asks already knowing what they want him to do.

"Would you go check up on Hermione?" his mother asks.

He sighs then apparates to his brother's apartment, hoping she's there. Just as Hermione is coming out of the kitchen, he appears in front of her and she screams.

"Severus!" she says holding a hand to her heart.

"I have a habit of doing that don't I?" he questions with a frown on his face.

"Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here?" she asks.

"I needed to talk to you about something."

"Could it wait until tomorrow? I was just on my way to my friend's party," she says, putting on her coat.

"I'll walk with you."

She looks at him funny, but shrugs her shoulders, and heads out the door. As they step outside, Hermione pulls her coat around her tighter as the cold air whips around her. He growls at the freezing temperatures and casts a warming spell on himself.

"Just a little cold?" she teases.

He glares at her and she laughs.

"How far is your friend's place?" he asks.

"Not too far. Just to Caroline Place."

He nods his head. They walk in silence for a while, before Hermione breaks it. "What is it that you needed to talk to me about?" He stays quiet. "Severus, you've always been one that wants to get straight to the point. Why are you stalling?" she asks. He frowns again, but still stays quiet, wondering how he should bring this up to her. Hermione notices that they're standing in front of her friend's house. "I guess what ever it is that you wanted to talk to me about is going to have to wait until tomorrow."

"What?" Severus says, shaking his thoughts away.

"This is my friend's place."

"I'll walk you to the door."

"You are acting so strange tonight."

"No, I'm not," he defends.

They reach the door and Eden greets them.

"Hey everyone! Hermione and her fiancée, Aleksandr, are here!"

Severus looks horrified as he's drug into the house filled with people dancing to loud music and drinking. Hermione goes straight to the kitchen fridge and grabs a beer. He follows closely behind her.

"You shouldn't be drinking that."

"Why not?" she says gulping down several large mouthfuls.

"Because alcohol, Miss Granger, is not good for you or the baby," he shouts so she can hear him over the music, but the music stops and everyone hears.

Hermione's eyes go wide and she runs out of the house, with Severus at her heels. "Hermione! Hermione, wait!"

She keeps going, ignoring his calls. She's just outside her apartment, when he finally catches up to her.

"Hermione!" he spins her around.

"Why? Why would you go an announce something like that to all my friends?" she says angrily.

"What? You mean you're not pregnant?"

"No! I'm not!" She rants and goes to lean against one of the pillars outside her building.

He slowly walks over to her.

"I'm…I'm sorry, Hermione."

"Why did you think I was pregnant?"

"Andrea said her friend heard you say that you were."

"And you, Severus Snape, believed a rumor?"

He pinches the bridge of his nose, feeling a really bad headache coming on.

"I don't know what to believe. My brother has always been noble."

"So the only reason your brother would want marry me is if he got me pregnant?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what did you mean? You haven't liked me since day one. You think I do something like that on purpose? You think I'd weasel my way into your family by becoming pregnant so I could return to the wizarding world and wouldn't have to hear someone call me a mudblood anymore?"

"Hermione, no. You're a Gryffindor. That would be something I'd expect from someone like Malfoy," he sighs and stands a little closer to her.

"Yeah, as you said before I will always be that little annoying Gryffindor Know-It-All," she says and starts towards her apartment.

"Not so much anymore," he whispers. He watches her disappear behind the heavy door to her building, then goes back home.


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione wakes up the next morning to an owl pecking at her window. She rolls out of bed to get the letter. She reads it out loud.

"Hermione,

My parents wanted me to inform you that Aleksandr is awake and talking.

Sincerely,

Severus Snape."

She gets dressed, takes the tube to the hospital, and heads up to Aleksandr's room, where Willem, Gillian, and Andrea give her hugs.

"Aleksandr, look who it is," Gillian says.

"Mother, who is she?" he says after looking at Hermione for a long time. Everyone looks at her then at him.

"Oh no, he's got amnesia," Willem states just as Aleksandr lies his head back and closes his eyes to sleep.

Everyone steps outside while the doctor explains Aleksandr's condition to them. Hermione decides that she just can't keep up the façade any longer.

"I'm sorry. I have to tell you something that is really important. I was never-"

"Pregnant?" Gillian says cutting her off. "We know, Severus told us."

Just as Gillian finishes, Severus arrives, and they head back to see Aleksandr as Hermione trails behind them.

After Aleksandr wakes up again, the family explains to him what happened and that he's engaged to Hermione. He becomes terrified that he can't remember her and starts wondering what else he has temporarily forgotten. The doctor says that he's had too much excitement for one night and sends everyone home. Willem asks Severus if he could see to it that Hermione makes it home safely. He doesn't agree right away, but decides that maybe he should.

On the train ride home, they don't really talk. Each are lost in their own thoughts.

"I'll walk you to the door," he announces.

She nods her head as they start walking.

"Umm…Severus, I wanted to say thank you."

"What for?"

"Just for being someone I could talk to."

"You mean argue with," he corrects and she smiles.

"As crazy as it sounds, I've missed that. Since I left everything and came to muggle London, things have been difficult for me. I'm alone here. I have no one to talk to or even argue with."

"You have Aleksandr."

"I really don't have anyone." He looks at the ground, then back at her. "Good night, Severus."

"Good night, Hermione."

She gives him a half smile and goes inside.

Over the course of the next couple of days, Willem encourages Aleksandr to spend more time with Hermione and perhaps propose to her again. He agrees to give it a try.

She comes to see him a week before he's supposed to be released from the hospital.

"Hi," she says.

"Hi, Hermione."

She sits down in the chair next to his bed.

"I brought you your things. I thought you'd like to wear your own clothes when you go home."

"Thank you. That was very nice of you." She smiles and he smiles back. "You know, I think I'm starting to remember you."

"You are?" she asks worriedly.

"I remember your smile." He reaches for her hand. "Hermione, I remember I loved your smile. Call me crazy, but I know that I don't want to wake up another day and not see you smiling at me…Will you marry me?" She sits their frozen. "Hermione?"

"Uh…yes," she answers finally.

He smiles and pulls her into a hug. That is how Severus finds them. He clears his throat. Hermione pulls back from Aleksandr to look at his brother.

"I thought I would see how my brother was doing."

"How nice," Aleksandr says, his voice going cold. He looks at Hermione and smiles. "But if you care to know, I am fine. No, I'm better than fine. I'm going to marry Hermione."

Severus snarls, and glares at his brother, before turning around and leaving.

Hermione goes back to her apartment later that night and sifts though her closet to find a dress to wear for her wedding. She asks Crookshanks for his opinion, but he just looks at her annoyed and goes back to cleaning himself. Hermione starts to look for a pair of shoes to go with her dress, when someone knocks on the door.

"Severus?" she asks surprised when she opens it.

"I wanted to stop by and give you this so no one else sees it."

He hands her a beautifully wrapped present, decorated in crimson and gold, with a green and silver bow attached to it.

"Thank you. Do you want to come in?" She steps aside for him to enter.

He steps through doorway and looks around as she sits on her couch and opens his gift. It is a black leather bound book of rare potions.

"I know you don't want anything to do with the wizarding world, but I thought that if you ever decided to come back, this could be a start to the library that I know you'd want to start."

"Severus, this must have been very expensive," she comments. "But thank you." He looks at her for a few minutes.

"I better get going," he says.

Before he can apparate, she gently puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Severus, can you give me any reason why I shouldn't marry your brother?"

"I can't," he says softly, then steps away from her to apparate back home. Hermione sighs, curls up on the couch, and starts looking though the book he gave her.


	7. Chapter 7

The next couple of days are busy with finalizing the wedding plans. Severus keeps his distance from everyone, wishing that the holiday break was over so he could miss the wedding and go back to terrorizing his students.

Hermione races to find the hospital's wedding chapel, already being a few minutes late. Gillian looks worriedly at Willem, but smiles when she sees Hermione. The wedding march starts to play as she walks down the aisle towards Aleksandr. She watches a very unhappy Severus who is forced to stand by his brother's side because of a family tradition. Aleksandr smiles as she comes to stand beside him. The priest waits until everyone is seated before beginning the ceremony.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to-"

"I object," Hermione says.

"Why?" Aleksandr asks sadly.

"I can't do this."

All eyes are on her, waiting for an explanation. She takes a deep breathe before explaining.

"I lied to you all. I am not a normal person from London. I am a witch, born to muggle parents. I was placed in Gryffindor at Hogwarts and was friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. I left the wizarding world because I could not live with myself after I spoke one of the unforgivables, even if it was to defeat the Dark Lord. Severus and Dumbledore were the only ones that knew it was me who killed Voldemort."

Everyone sits in silence thinking about what she just said. Aleksandr is the first to break it.

"Hermione, it doesn't matter to me that you used one of the unforgivables. I still want to marry you."

She closes her eyes, tears now falling down her cheeks.

"I would still have to object," she states and they wait for her to continue. "The truth is, I was never engaged to you, Aleksandr," she sighs heavily. "We hadn't even spoken, but maybe two words to each other before you had your accident. There was a mix up with someone saying that I was your fiancée. I wanted to tell you all the truth, but for the first time since my parents and best friends were murdered, I felt like I belonged somewhere. And I just didn't want to give that up. I know I've hurt you all, and I am deeply sorry." She wipes at her eyes and leaves.

Severus starts to go after her, but his mother stands in his way.

"Let her go, Severus," she whispers. "She needs time."

He sighs, knowing that his mother is right.

He goes the rest of the holiday break without seeing or hearing from her. He

returns to Hogwarts and is worse than he ever was before, deducting points if anyone sneezed or coughed. He even takes away points from his own house.

Hermione slips into an even deeper depression than she had before. She goes as far as quitting her job and not eating for days at a time. Her days and nights all become one big blur from not sleeping. She stops paying her rent and ends up being evicted. As she packs her belongings, she runs across the black leather bound potions book that Severus gave her.

"Maybe it's time to go back."

She finishes packing and for the first time in years, she uses a spell to shrink the boxes down so they fit in her pockets, and apparates to Oxford.

It was one night in late January that Severus overheard Dumbledore telling McGonagall that Hermione had returned to Oxford. A rare smile crossed his lips, then disappeared as quickly as it had come, for fear some dunderheaded student wandering about might see. That had been the first piece of good news he had heard since he came back from Christmas break. For the rest of his stroll though the corridors, he thought of only one thing.

It didn't take long for Hermione to get back into the ways of the wizarding world, even though a few things were different. Her whole outlook on life had changed and she saw all the good that had come from using an unforgivable. Having gone through what she had, she realized that there are more important things in life than dwelling on things in the past. She had become quite popular at Oxford, had a ton of friends, but there was still one thing missing.

The day after classes at Hogwarts let out for the summer, Hermione gathered up all her courage and went to see Severus. She knocked on the potions door, scared to death that he would send her away without a second glance.

"Come in," he growls angrily. She opens the door, gingerly. He snarls at the towering stacks of papers on his desk. "As you can see, I am terribly busy, so would you just spit out whatever it is that you came down here to say and be on your way," he says coldly.

"I'm sorry I bothered you. I will leave," Hermione replies sadly.

His head snaps up to look at his visitor.

"Hermione? No, please stay," he says standing up and walking over to her. "Please, sit."

She smiles and takes a seat on one of the desks.

"How have you been, Severus?"

"I think you already know the answer to that," he says as he sits next to her. She nods her head. "I hear you went back to Oxford."

"Yeah, I decided that it was time to come back." They sit in an awkward silence. "Severus?" He looks at her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth about what really happened with your brother."

"You don't owe me an apology."

"Yes, I do. I forgot everything that I had learned from you when I started living in the muggle world. I was stuck on the fact that I was no longer perfect for using an unforgivable, and I let it destroy me. What I only realized after the fiasco at Christmas was that everyone makes mistakes, but not all mistakes turn out bad. Some do have happy endings."

"What are you getting at?"

She leans over slowly and kisses him softly.

"I love you, Severus," she breathes.

"I love you, too, Hermione," he whispers as he gently runs a hand over her face before reclaiming her lips in a tender kiss.

She smiles at him as he pulls her into an embrace.

A few weeks later, Hermione stands in front of the door leading into the Snape family home. She knocks tentatively, a

little nervous since this is the first time she has seen the family since Christmas. Andrea excitedly answers the door and ushers her into the house.

"Andrea, what's going on?" she asks looking back at her as she stumbles through the foyer.

"You'll see," she responds, pushing Hermione into the sitting room.

Hermione stops dead in her tracks. Severus stands in the center of the room, Gillian and Willem on either side of him with smiles on their faces.

"Severus?" Hermione questions.

He smiles as he walks to stand in front of her and takes her hands in his.

"I don't want to waist anymore time. I want to be able to hold you in my arms all night long, and wake up with you every morning for the rest of my life."

He reaches into his pocket as he gets down on one knee. Hermione's breathe catches in her throat as he opens a tiny black velvet box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring.

"Hermione, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?"

"Yes," she says smiling as tears slide down her face.

He slips the ring onto her finger as his family cheers and kisses her tenderly.

They stand before friends and family a little over a month later in a beautiful rose garden just south of Hogsmeade. A tear slides down Hermione's face as Severus says his vows and places a ring onto her finger. Her voice quivers as she does the same. He smiles as the priest pronounces them husband and wife and leans in to give her a tender kiss.

After a long honeymoon in Florence, Italy, Severus and Hermione returned back to Hogwarts just before the start of term. Thanks to Dumbledore and the headmaster at Oxford, Hermione was able attend her classes via the Floo Network.

That Christmas, Hermione and Severus joined his family for dinner and to exchange gifts. Since the wedding, Aleksandr and Severus had managed to work out a few problems between them. At least now they were being some what friendly to one another.

Hermione stood in the entry way to the sitting room, watching Severus and Andrea play with the puppy she received from her parents when Aleksandr came from the dinning room to stand next to her.

"How are you doing?" he asks her quietly.

"Pretty well, thank you," she responds as she places a hand on her slightly enlarged abdomen.

He looks down at her hand for a few moments before looking over at his brother, then back at her.

"Hermione, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"When did you fall in love with Severus?"

She turns her attention away from her husband and looks at Aleksandr.

"It was while you were sleeping."

The End


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